Transfiguration Lesson 3 (Years 5-7)

At the end of the year, the student body's mutual stress over quickly approaching exams was almost palpable. Grayson could see that many of those who had recently begun frequenting the library were sleep-deprived, snappy, and irritable for the most part. And though he himself worried about how his own students would fare, he knew that a high-pressure attitude would be more harmful than helpful. He understood that his students needed a break, and he was willing to give it to them. Of course, he'd still be teaching something useful...but mostly it was just for fun.

Self-transfiguration was a versatile and compelling branch of magic, which Grayson happened to have studied at great length. It was a particular specialty of the students of Uagadou, and, in the librarian's opinion, it was not enough of a focus in Western curriculum. It was fun and extremely useful if done correctly, but it was also advanced and difficult magic, with potentially horrible consequences should one mess up. Which was, he thought, precisely why it needed to be taught in a controlled environment, and not avoided, but the Ministry didn't quite seem to agree.

Still, this was one lesson that he could get away with, at least with the older years. It was one of the less dangerous spells, due to its purely cosmetic nature; they wouldn't be messing with gene changes or mutated body parts any time soon. Obviously, it still required a fair amount of skill, but at least nothing could go seriously wrong as long as his students were being responsible.

The classroom was set up normally today, but on each desk was a handheld mirror. It was always helpful to see what one was doing. On the board were two words: Crinus Muto.

Transfiguration had never been one of Nerisei's favourite subjects. Unlike other people, though, the young witch loved to learn new things, and rarely did she ever allow herself to skip class, if ever. What she hadn't take under consideration, though, was the fact that this was one of the classes Dimitri used to attend, mostly because it involved spells, and it was widely known that the Moreau heir had an affinity for charms.

Anne had asked her one too many times, if she was sure she wanted to attend class, and Nerisei had answered the same thing, every single time. 'Everything is fine. I've moved on'. Of course, her Ravenclaw friend did not fully believe her, even though Nerisei had been seen with Jacques more than once. After all, no one moved on from their first love like that, especially if it had meant so much for the person.

Nevertheless, Nerisei had left the Ravenclaw Tower alongside her blonde friend, and they had both made their way down to the Ground Floor, and most specifically to the Transfiguration Classroom. A smile touched the witch's lips as she spotted no one else in the class. It seemed like she had arrived first, meaning that there was still time before Dimitri arrived. If he arrived. The brunette took a seat in one of the many desks, Anne slipping into the seat next to her without a word.

Nerisei's eyes darted towards the Professor, and she gave him a small smile and a polite nod, as a greeting. She still felt utterly embarrassed, after the scene that had played between Dimitri and her in the Library. The young witch did not linger on those thoughts for too long, though, because soon after, her eyes landed on what was written on the board behind the young man.

Once more Transfiguration had come up on Dimitri's timetable, and once more he found himself heading to the class. The lesson would have been fun, Dimitri supposed, if the professor wasn't the kind of man who decided to pick fights. No, after the very first lesson, Dimitri had decided he did not like Professor Hughes, and that meant coming to Transfiguration was almost as much of a chore as going to Potions.

What made it even worse, was that the professor had seen the scene in the library, one that Dimitri had not wished for any of the members of staff to see. Whilst no repercussions had come from his actions, though, Dimitri did not trust the librarian to keep his mouth shut for long. Which meant keeping his head down in the professor's classroom.

Today, Dimitri was flanked by Phil and Dom, all of them in good spirits. Phil had just gotten some red head to do things that made Dimitri's eyebrows raise, and Dom was much too happy with his friend's achievements to think about his own lack of action. The boys were talking loudly about an upcoming party as they arrived at the lesson, Phil shoving Dimitri playfully as they entered with a comment along the lines of 'we'll find you someone to play with, don't worry'. It was in the same moment that Dimitri had caught sight of Nerisei sat beside Anne, ready to go.

"Yeah, sounds great!" Dimitri replied, his eyes still on Nerisei in a manner that just asked her to rise to the bait of the boy's taunting in that moment. But his eyes shifted from the witch as the three Ravenclaws took up their seats at the back of the room. Dimitri had been taking out his book when Phil spoke, a little too close for the obvious stage whisper that came next.

"Is she still running around after the Clement prick?"

"Probably, who cares." Dimitri replied, actually in a whisper as he readied himself for the class. But Phil had got the reaction he wanted, the scowl on Dimitri's features showed he was not happy with the idea of Nerisei still toying around with Jacques Clement. Now, however, was not the time to think about it.

Harper sighed, lugging her heavy bag from class to class all day was tiring in and of itself, not to mention the actual class, the residual work and practice and studying that had to be done after class, and don't even get her started on the exams coming up. She was in a bad mood coming into the class, but she attended anyways, she couldn't afford to miss a lesson, seeing as exams where creeping ever closer.

She plopped in a seat near the front and was already coming to class as she sat her bag down. Until she saw the board that is. At the words written there her face lit up. She'd taught herself that charm last year, and used it almost daily, so she was extremely relieved to have been granted an easy hour in this lesson. She picked up her mirror, looking over herself to decide what she actually felt like changing at the moment.

Grayson did not fail to notice the tension between the two Ravenclaws he had witnessed arguing in the library not too long ago. He said nothing. He was not in the habit of involving himself in other people's drama, especially not his teenaged students. If they could not sort out their own issues, he didn't see how he could make anything better, especially since neither of them seemed to want him in their business. The Moreau boy in particular had disliked Grayson from the start, so Grayson suspected anything he said or did would do more harm than good. Besides, what good would he be in resolving relationship issues between teenagers? Even the idea of getting involved was simply awkward. No, as long as they didn't interrupt class, he would pretend as if nothing had happened.

As his students took their seats, he greeted them with a relaxed smile and gestured to the board. "As I'm sure you can see, we're doing something fun today. Self-Transfiguration is a branch of magic your O.W.L.s and even N.E.W.T.s tend to skip over, but it has many practical and entertaining uses. Hair colour is a relatively simple thing to change, and can be quite fun to experiment with. However, that is not to say it won't be challenging."

He paced a little in front of his desk while he spoke. "Like all Transfiguration, self-Transfiguration requires the utmost precision and focus. As you already know, it is much harder to perform Transfiguration on live creatures than it is on inanimate objects. The more complex the creature's anatomy, the more difficult it is to transfigure. Humans, therefore, are among the hardest subjects."

He continued his lecture, explaining the risks and rewards of self-Transfiguration, before asking if anyone felt confident enough to give it a go. He called upon a student to demonstrate, and gave a couple tips before releasing the rest of the class to have some fun.

He sat back and watched, glad that most of the class was able to relax and laugh with each other in the face of their oncoming exams. They deserved this brief respite from studying.

By the end of class, everyone's hair had changed colours several times over, and while some had returned to their original colour at the end, a few were still sporting some drastic changes. Grayson grinned at a few who had embraced some more unorthodox hues and were now wearing them proudly.

As the bell rang signalling the end of class, he dismissed them with some good news. "Well done, everyone. You'll have no homework from me except to keep studying. Good luck on your exams!"